Building upon preliminary data from 15 years of collaboration between the teams of Co-PIs Drs. Calac and Moore, including the recent TRDRP T30IR0933 research project, “Multilevel prevention of commercial tobacco-related harms on rural California Tribal lands,” we expand a multi-pronged intervention that aims to reduce young California Indian exposure to and use of commercial tobacco through environmental interventions and systems changes that will bolster cessation efforts for adults, thereby removing physical and social availability of commercial tobacco products for youth. The prevalence of commercial tobacco use in this population is higher than among other Californians’ average use. The Community Partner Co-PI is Daniel Calac, MD, who is an enrolled member of a local Tribe as well as Chief Medical Officer of a Tribal clinic.
The study combines extending cessation resources to rural reservation communities accompanied by reward and reminder programs to limit the sale of electronic cigarette supplies and other commercial tobacco products to American Indian youth under the age of 21. To assure the necessary community oversight for the project, the study will be guided by the Tribal IRB, the clinic’s Scientific Advisory Board consisting of two representatives from each of nine consortium tribes, and the Southern California Tribal Tobacco Coalition from four of those tribes, which will serve as the Community Advisory Board. Outcome measures concerning commercial tobacco use and cessation from the clinic’s electronic health records will be triangulated with survey and qualitative data to assess the success of the proposed program’s components as well as their synergistic impact overall. Sharing the findings with community and Tribal Council members through regularly scheduled events and media is also an essential element of a successful community-engaged project.
